NBA: Top 10 candidates for 2019-20 Defensive Player of the Year

Kawhi Leonard, now with the LA Clippers, is one of the most gifted defensive players of this generation. A combination of size (6-foot-7 and 230 pounds) and length (7-foot-3 wingspan) makes him a nightmare for offensive players from 1 through 5.

A two-time Defensive Player of the Year winner with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014-15 and 2015-16, Leonard’s load management needs might prevent him from contending for the award, however.

While voters have gone with two players in recent years who played less than 70 games (Rudy Gobert, 56 in 2017-18, and Leonard, 64 in 2014-15), availability is always important when considering potential award winners.

And for as special as Leonard’s playoff run was last season for the Toronto Raptors, the fact remains we’re talking about a player who has only missed fewer than 10 games twice in his career (two in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season and eight in 2016-17).

Leonard missed 22 games last season after playing in just nine the year before and, at age 28, it is likely his regular-season workload will be carefully managed for the remainder of his career.

In other words, he’s not a guy you can pencil in for 78-82 games at 36-38 minutes per night, but he’ll deliver that sort of workload in the playoffs, as he showed last spring.

But when he’s on the floor, Leonard will have an impact at the defensive end. He grabbed a career-high 6.0 defensive rebounds per game last season to go with 1.8 steals a night and has the length and strength to make it difficult for his assignment to get to his preferred spots.

And he has the pedigree of five All-Defensive selections and the aforementioned two Defensive Player of the Year trophies already in his case.

So if he’s anywhere approaching healthy, he’ll be in the discussion.